AIAA Praises Bush's Efforts to Modernize the FAA

On Friday, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics applauded President Bush's discussion of the FAA Modernization Act, which was proposed to Congress in February and is intended as the "blueprint" for modernizing the Federal Aviation Administration.

The technology upgrades that the Act would mandate include the use of Global Positioning Systems, cockpit data link systems that reduce voice communications while providing more system data directly to the flight crew, and phased-in technology improvements such as the User Request Evaluation Tool for giving air traffic controllers additional lead time to look for potential conflicts.

"We stand behind the President's renewed call to modernize the technologies in our air transportation system, which is vital to our national economic security. With an expected doubling of air traffic by 2025, our nation needs to invest now to safely, efficiently, and effectively manage that increased capacity," said AIAA President Paul Nielsen.

The FAA has been looking to the future of the friendly skies for some years. When the revolutionary Space Ship One was successfully launched and flown on the first day of Summer in 2004, FAA administrator Marion Blakley reflected, "We do see this as the frontier for transportation around the world. We know there will be risks, but those are risks worth taking."

Some people, including pilots, are however concerned that the FAA is an expensive but bungling, or even unnecessary, government agency that should get out of its own way.

In 2005, the American Association of Airport Executives estimated that the repair and upgrading of the nation's commercial airports will cost at least $12 billion per year through 2010. The FAA, however, had given cost estimates of only $6.5 billion, a fact that those who aren't favorably disposed toward the FAA have cited as an example of the agency's general incompetence.

Another criticism often levied against the FAA is that it does not take its own pilots or ground control observers seriously if they have any experiences or ideas that are considered to be unusual, and acts too much like a government cover-up agency.

This notion often comes to light when the topic of UFOs is brought up by pilots or air traffic control workers--and it is a topic that comes up a lot more than most people are aware.

Earlier this week, a panel that included former accident investigators from the FAA and the Department of Defense met with a group of 19 pilots and government officials at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Fife Symington, a former Air Force pilot and governor of Arizona who claims to have seen a UFO in 1997, acted as moderator of the event, which was organized to demand that the federal government, including the FAA, seriously investigate reports of UFOs instead of ignoring the large body of reports about them that have been made through the years by trained professional pilots.

All of the pilots testified that they have had unexplained encounters with unknown objects in the skies. One pilot who is a member of the Peruvian air force said that he fired many rounds, with no effect, at a UFO. An Iranian air force pilot also testified that when he tried to fire on a UFO his airplane's control panel ceased functioning.

About a year ago, some United Airlines employees and members of the public reported seeing a UFO that hovered for several minutes and then took off vertically near Chicago's O'Hare airport, the busiest airport in the world, and even left a circular hole in clouds above. The FAA conducted only a minimal investigation and released a statement that what was observed was a "weather phenomenon", leaving observers and UFO investigators disgusted by what they consider another cover-up.

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